U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) have introduced a bill to bolster protections for rural mail services across the country.
The Protect Postal Performance Act (below) would put safeguards in place to keep the United States Postal Service (USPS) from moving mail processing operations from Reno to Sacramento without public oversight.
Specifically, the legislation would:
* Require USPS to get an advisory opinion from the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) before changing operations at mail processing facilities. If the PRC finds a proposed change would slow on-time delivery, USPS must publish a report explaining how it will maintain delivery standards
* Require USPS hold a public hearing (in-person or virtual) before closing or consolidating a post office during a 60-day review period
* Prohibit the closure or consolidation of a post office if it is more than 15 miles from any other post office or if it is the closest post office serving 15,000 or more people
* Mandate that USPS cannot close, consolidate, or downgrade a facility if it would leave a geographically separate region with more than 100,000 residents without a facility.
In April of 2024, USPS said it would relocate mail operations from Reno to Sacramento, but later abandoned its plan.Â
Senator Cortez Masto's office says the USPS initially did not release information on the study that served as the basis for its decision or gave any analysis on local impacts of moving mail processing completely out of Nevada.
Senators Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) eventually got USPS to publicly commit to abandoning this plan.
(Senator Catherine Cortez Masto contributed to this report.)
